Green Your Morning Routine: Sustainable Toothbrushes and Toothpastes
One of my favorite ways to approach living a more sustainable life is evaluating my daily routine and thinking about small things I can change that make a big difference. Bonus points if it is a change I can maintain when I’m traveling! It isn’t feasible for me to buy a Tesla or install solar panels right now, (alas, one day) — but what I can do is make sure the products in my everyday life are eco-friendly.
Did you know you will spend 1,440 minutes a year brushing your teeth (if you’re brushing the recommended 2-minutes twice a day). That’s a good chunk of time to make a sustainable switch. Below are some tips that can help:
Switch to a biodegradable, bamboo toothbrush. While toothbrushes may not technically be single-use, they are still often made of plastic that we eventually toss. Well, like most single-use plastic items, it’s great to find a biodegradable version. Bamboo forests can be grown much more quickly than other trees, making them a more renewable resource in addition to being biodegradable. Additionally, bamboo absorbs more carbon from the environment than other trees and produces more oxygen! We like Mother’s Vault, Wowe and Brush with Bamboo.
Avoid toothpaste with plastic microbeads. These micro plastics are small enough to wash down our drains and into our lakes and oceans, where they’re ingested by aquatic life and can end up in the fish we like to eat. Plus, who wants to swish plastic around their mouth? Brands like Aquafresh, Colgate, Crest and Sensodyne all use them. For a full list of products to avoid, check out BeatTheMicrobead.org.
Choose a package-free toothpaste brand. Don’t you find it strange that toothpaste is sold in cardboard boxes, even though it’s already in a tube? It’s bad enough the tubes are plastic, but doubling the waste is also frustrating. Our favorite package-free toothpastes are Bites Toothpaste Bits, Georganics Toothpaste Powder and Unpaste Zero Waste Toothpaste Tablets. Plus, a bonus of package-free is that it’s one less liquid to get through TSA!
Use less paste with each wash. You only need a pea-sized amount to get your teeth squeaky-clean, and it means you’ll cycle through tubes less often which amounts to less cumulative waste.